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What's a BlackBerry
WebWorks
app?

A BlackBerry
WebWorks app is a web application that runs on a BlackBerry device.

As of BlackBerry
WebWorks 2.0, the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK
is now built on Apache
Cordova, an open-source development framework that lets you create applications using web
technologies. Be sure to check out some of the BlackBerry
WebWorks Samples.

Although adopting Cordova as
the development standard has resulted in some changes to the way WebWorks applications
are structured, the process is not complicated. Creating a BlackBerry
WebWorks
app involves the following high-level steps:

Create your project: Use the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK web tool or the command line tool to create the folder
structure and template files for your new WebWorks project.

Design and develop your app logic and resources: Create the HTML, CSS,
JavaScript files and other resources, or reuse existing ones, and save them in the
appropriate locations in your project's /www folder.

Add the required plugins: A plugin represents a set of APIs that allow your
app to access the features of the platform by binding the JavaScript functions
to the native methods of the device code.

Build and test your app: Use the web tool or the command line to test your
app in a simulator or on a device.

ease of access, even when users do not have an Internet connection available

Portability

Because you create them using common web standards, BlackBerry
WebWorks apps are not platform-dependent. When you port to other mobile
platforms, such as iOS or Android, you can reuse many of your existing web assets.

By aligning with Apache
Cordova for BlackBerry
WebWorks 2.0, your WebWorks apps will now have an even greater level of
compatibility. Cordova provides a common development layer, and makes adapting the
output to multiple mobile platforms much simpler. You create an app using the languages
you know, and Cordova
handles the bindings to the native layer of the various platforms.

You can also take advantage of popular mobile web frameworks, such as
Sencha Touch, jQuery Mobile, Dojo, and others. These
frameworks provide a wide range of useful APIs that can greatly simplify cross-browser
web development. Many of these frameworks also provide a BlackBerry theme to help you achieve the same look and feel as apps written
in C/C++. See Frameworks for more information.

Integration

Standard HTML5 provides access to some BlackBerry device features, such as geolocation information and device
orientation, but the BlackBerry
WebWorks APIs allow you to access BlackBerry specific data. For example, you can check the battery power level,
find out whether the device is holstered, or get brightness information from the light
sensor.

BlackBerry
WebWorks APIs let you integrate with many of the core BlackBerry applications. For example, you can integrate your app with BBM,
Calendar, or Contacts.

You can invoke a single screen (called a
card) from another app while in your app. This lets users interact with another
application to perform a specific task, such as picking a contact, composing an email,
or previewing an image, without leaving your
app.

Ease of access

An app packaged with BlackBerry
WebWorks can use server data if it needs to. Load times can be reduced because most
of the logic and presentation layer of the app are already on the device. If you can make your
application's resources local to the BlackBerry
device, users will be able to access your content even when they don't have an Internet
connection.

When you package your web app as a BlackBerry
WebWorks app, you can publish it to BlackBerry World,
where users can find and buy it. No registration fees or submission fees are required to
become a BlackBerry World vendor. To learn more about publishing your app, see BlackBerry World on the BlackBerry Developer website.

Last modified: 2014-10-09

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